Top 10 albums

Ben Grubb (see ben's blog) has set the challenge to publish my favourite 10 albums of all time on my blog, so here is today's list, in no particular order:

1.The Joshua Tree - U2
2. No Coda - Pearl Jam
3. Gedida - Natasha Atlas
4. Change of the Century - Ornette Coleman
5. Solid Air - John Martyn
6. In A Silent Way - Miles Davis
7. Aman Iman - Tinariwen
8. Monster - REM
9. Californiacation - Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. Hejira - Joni Mitchell

I thought it would take all afternoon to figure out, but has taken approximately 15 minutes!

In other news - life drawing again this morning, so will post something when I have scanned

the paint brush holder my mum made for me

It is the anniversary of when my mum died, so I am feeling reflective and a bit sad, and very thankful. My mum made me this paintbrush holder: being very thrifty and practical she made it from window blind fabric samples and recyled elastic! Pink was my choice of colour. The loose paint brushes belonged to her - she had a great time going to art classes in the last few years of her life, and I enjoyed talking about painting techniques, etc with her - about the only area of life in which I had many more years of experience than she did.

another life drawing

I went life drawing again this morning, with dubious results. Of the 6 drawings I did today, I think this, which is one of the 5 minute "warm up" sketches is the most successful. 'All good practice anyway.

Otherwise, I was most excited to receive issue 17 of ImagineFX at the weekend: one of my favourite magazines, combining illustration with fantasy and science fiction.

cat hiding with added shadows

After some very helpful feedback on the cat hiding illustration, I have added more and bolder shadows to the image. Doing shadows is something I find a quite of a challenge, because I see line and colour, not tone and shadow generally. However, this is a skill I want to improve, hence my current focus on shadow and form in life drawing.

It's great that today is such a lovely sunny day, and so enjoyed painting the shadows. Today's bright light is showing up the spiders webs and dust, so thoughts of spring-cleaning are very much to the fore.

Illustration Friday: Hide

Last Friday's Illustration Friday topic was 'hide'. Purely coincidentally I was already working on an idea for an illustration about a cat who hid under the sink! So this watercolour illustration will fit both.

Life drawing today

This morning I went life drawing, which is such brilliant practice with looking carefully, and drawing what I can see, not what I know! I'm also especially focussing on light and shade at the moment, because that's not what I generally see first. The pencil drawing took about an hour, and the water colour sketch from the same pose was 5 minutes work.

sculpture from 30 years ago

I was asked today about what type of sculpture I made when I did my degree in sculpture 30 years ago (Gosh doesn't time fly!), so thought I would post a photo here from my degree show. 'Apologies for the poor quality - it is a scanned Polaroid print. 'Does give an idea of the work I was experimenting with at the tme, though.

a couple of things I've made recently

Most of the drawing I have been doing for the past couple of weeks has been while I have been out. There is a reason for this, which is that my living room is still in a state of chaos, having been re-arranged to allow for tests of gas boiler, etc. Everything is ok, but I want to vacuum thoroughly before I put furniture back where it should be, and am waiting for new part for Dyson. Hence I can't currently sit at desk I use to paint and draw at! I've been continuing going to life drawing sessions, and also scribbling down ideas for urban fairies, and for the next Pinkty book. On the tube last week I made this 5 minute sketch, which I think is quite good for 7.30 am.

The bracelet I made a couple of weeks ago: yes, I am rather obessessed with dragonflies!

Naughty me - not keeping blog up to date

A certain someone told me last night that having difficulty remembering my new log-in for Google version of my blog was no excuse for not keeping my blog up to date! Mea culpa, indeed.

Well, I have not disappeared, and have been doing life drawing, sketching on tube, etc, and will scan some to post here soon.